Wood Stove Buyer's Guide

Before you begin browsing through hundreds of
wood stoves on the internet,
or making a mad dash to your local wood stove manufacturer; you will need to
do a little research at home. Do your homework and consider the following factors
before making your wood stove investment.

What is the primary purpose of the wood stove?

Consider what the primary purpose of the wood stove will
be. Will you use your wood burning stove primarily for cooking, ambiance, heating,
or a combination of all of the above?

How much heat do you need your wood stove to provide?

Consider how much heat you expect to be emitted from your
wood burning stove. Will you be heating a single room, a whole floor, a good
sized cottage or an entire home?

How often will the wood stove be used?

Consider how often you will be using your wood burning stove.
Will you be operating it on a consistent basis, as a back up, to occasionally
to take the chill out of the air in the mornings and evenings, or just when
you want an ambient glow for romantic evenings?

Where will you be placing your wood stove?

Consider where you will be placing you wood burning stove
in your home. Wood stoves should be placed in an area that will disperse the
most heat and provide the most coverage.

Professional or do it yourself installation?

Consider if your wood burning stove installation is a task
that you can complete by yourself or if you will need to contact a professional
to install the wood stove for you.

Do you have the space and equipment needed to store and season
firewood?

Consider whether or not you have the space and the proper
equipment to split, store, and season firewood properly to burn in your wood
stove.

Size is a very important factor to consider when looking
for a new efficient wood stove and here's why; A wood stove that is too small
simply will not heat the area adequately. A wood stove that is too large will
cause potential fire hazards, stuffy rooms, and will ultimately prove to be
a waste of money because you'll be forced to cut down the wood stove's air supply
which will reduce efficiency and waste fuel.

Here are a few things that you should factor in to determine the correct
size wood stove for your application:

Area to be heated

The first thing you need to do to figure out which size wood stove is right
for you is figure out how much square feet you wish to heat with your wood burning
stove. Take the length and the width of the rooms that you are going to place
the wood stove in and multiply those two numbers and then add them all together.
This will give you the area that you will be heating in square feet. Heating
a one story smaller home is fairly easy to do with smaller wood stoves but you
have a larger home, long hallways, lots of bedrooms, or multiple levels, these
are all factors that will obstruct the air flow and keep the heat from getting
to those room. A way to push heat into those areas around the corners, twist
and turns, and upstairs is to install ceiling fans or place door fans in the
entry ways to circulate the warm air generated from wood stoves throughout the
house.

Typically wood stove's sizes are placed in three categories
including small, medium, and large. A small sized wood stove will heat from
600 to 1000 square feet, a medium sized woodstove will heat from 800 to 2000
square feet, and a large sized wood burning stove will heat from 800 to 3000
square feet. But just square footage alone doesn't tell you which size wood
stove you will need so don't rush to make your decision just yet.

Insulation

Insulation will also play a big role in which size wood stove your application
will require. If you don't know for sure how well your home in insulated, don't
panic. An educated guess will do. Just make the decision if your home has good
insulation, average insulation, or poor insulation. If your have a newer home
with quality construction, chances are it has good insulation. Most manufactured
homes will have poor insulation and anything in between would be considered
to have average insulation.

Windows

Another factor to base your decision of which size wood stove to purchase are
how many windows you have in your home and the characteristics of the windows.
For example if your home has very old windows, large windows, single-pane windows,
or even just mass amounts of windows in it, chances are that is going to down
grade the insulation of the home. Houses with more windows will require bigger,
more powerful wood stoves.

Ceiling height

Ceiling height plays a big role in determining the BTU rate that your application
will require to adequately heat your home. While most BTU calculators assume
that you are planning an application with an 8' ceiling, an increase to a 10'
or 12' ceiling can make a substantial difference in the BTU range required to
heat your application.

Geographic location and climate

Consider your geographic location and climate before you make your decision
on which size wood burning stove is right for you. This is important for obvious
reasons as a homeowner in Northern Michigan will need a more powerful stove
with a higher BTU rate and more wood heat than a homeowner in Tennessee or other
areas that don't get quite as cold and have harsh winter seasons.

Now that you've factored in all of the above information,
you can use our BTU calculator
to help you determine the BTU rating your application will require. Once the
BTU rate is calculated, you will be able to determine whether you need a small,
medium, or large efficient wood stove.

What are EPA Certified wood stoves and what does that mean for you?

You should always read the fine print and make sure that
your wood stove label reads EPA Certified. The best wood stove will be EPA certified.
In order for a wood burning stove to be EPA certified, it must comply with with
strict emissions and efficiency regulations designed to reduce pollution and
control energy costs. The EPA certification on a wood burning stove is your
guarantee that the stove you are buying will burn cleanly and efficiently, and
reduce your heating costs while protecting the air we breathe.

-EPA
Certified wood stoves burn more completely

-EPA Certified wood stoves offer greater heat
output

-EPA Certified wood stoves produce less creosote
build-up

Now that you have all of the technicalities out of the way
you can focus on the style, build, and type of wood stoves and which type you
would like to buy. Efficient wood stoves are available in many different builds,
colors, and styles to complement any home's interior.

Steel
wood stoves - A steel wood burning stove will heat up very quickly
and start giving off heat right away but it will not retain heat. As the fire
dies down inside of the stove and the wood heat lessens, the steel will also
cool down.

Cast
iron wood stoves - A cast iron wood burning stove takes a little
longer to heat up but retains heat very well. A cast iron wood stove will radiate
heat back into the room even after the fire dies down so you not only get the
wood heat from the wood burning fire but radiant heat from the stove.

Wood
stoves with an air wash system - An air wash system on a wood
burning stove in combination with high firebox temperatures will keep the large,
ceramic glass window clean so you always get an unobstructed view of the fire
when you heat with wood. An air wash system will also reduce cleaning maintenance
on the wood stove.

Wood
stoves with a blower - Adding a blower to a wood stove will drastically
increase heat output during wood burning fires. The variable speeds on a wood
stove blower help keep your home at just the right temperature, even on the
coldest winter days.

Wood
stoves with a refractory lined firebox - When you heat with wood,
a refractory lined firebox on a wood stove plays an important role in the advanced
burning process by holding the heat in and maintaining the interior temperature
necessary for low emissions.

Wood
stoves with a primary bottom air feed - A primary bottom air feed
on a wood burning stove assists in cold start ups and reviving a dying fire
sets the foundation for the perfect wood burning environment while you heat
with wood.

Zone heating is the act of using an alternate heating source
along with your central heating furnace to heat the rooms in your home that
you and your family use the most. Think of it this way, if you spend 90 percent
of your time in the family room and dining room area, why would you need to
keep the rest of your home at the same temperature when the rooms are rarely
occupied? You're wasting precious fuel and money heating those rooms that no
one uses.

Using a wood burning stove to zone heat the family room and
dining room is a cost efficient way to keep the rooms that you use most in your
home at a comfortable temperature. So how does zone heating with wood stoves
save you money?

Creating heat when you need it and where you need it most
with your wood burning stove will allow you to turn down your central heating
furnace thermostat to keep the rest of your home at a cooler, yet still comfortable
temperature which ultimately could save you up to a minimum of 30 percent on
your annual home heating costs.

Zone heating is the obvious solution for homeowners
concerned about rising fuel costs.